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12 Christmas Picture Books to Read Aloud in December
December is the perfect month to wrap up some picture books to read aloud throughout the month! Every day, students get excited to see the surprise book of the day and look forward to the unwrapping. It’s the classroom version of unboxing! There are SO many books to read in December, from the many holidays…
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How List Writing Builds Confidence in Spelling for Beginning Writers
Writing sentences can be hard for our emergent writers. They have to remember a string of words, have a small bank of sight words to work with, and they need to stretch out words they don’t know how to spell. It’s A LOT. To add to the trouble, many students are hesitant to stretch out…
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Top 5 Phonics Activities That Boost Reading Skills
I think it’s unanimous now- explicit phonics instruction is a MUST for learning to read. But not all phonics activities are created equal! With all of the options out there, which ones are most effective and efficient? Let’s cut through the noise and take a close look at five phonics activities that make a real…
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Top Election Day Books for Kids to Learn About Voting
Election Day is right around the corner, and it’s the perfect chance to introduce our students to the importance of voting! I love a great picture book to help me teach important concepts, so I’ve put together a list of my favorite Election Day books to help you do the same! And I’ve made you…
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Anecdotal Notes in Small-Group Reading: Tips and Free Templates
There’s nothing worse than sitting at your small-group reading table without a plan. Do the students in front of you need help with blending? Do they need support with digraphs, magic e, comprehension? Time flies when you’re working with a small group, so having a clear understanding of what your students know and need can…
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Planning for Small Group Instruction: Reading in Kindergarten and 1st Grade
Planning for small group instruction in your K-1 classroom can feel like a daunting task, but with a little thoughtful preparation and some practical tips, small-group reading can become the highlight of your teaching day! Whether you’re looking to create groups, fine-tune your schedule, or streamline your lesson-planning, I’ve got some tried and true strategies…
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How to Choose and Use Nonsense Words in Structured Literacy Lessons
Imagine walking into a kindergarten or 1st-grade classroom where the students are hard at work decoding words. As you walk from table to table, you see the students looking confident in their decoding skills and you hear words being read, like: “tup,” “lun,” “jop,” and “rit” Wait, WHAT?!? Those aren’t real words. You’re right, they’re…
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Tips for Teaching Capitals and Punctuation using Multisensory Strategies
i love baking my family and friends Wait, what?! Before you cast me as the wicked witch of Hansel and Gretel, I promise my cooking habits are nothing to be alarmed about! Let’s try that again: I love baking, my family, and friends. Suddenly, the narrative shifts completely – less like a horror story and…
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How To Assess Students in Reading Using Decodable Running Records
The goal of our small reading groups is to help kids make progress at their individual levels. Using decodable texts has been a game-changer in reading the past few years! We know that each student’s reading journey is as unique as a fingerprint, but finding tools to assess students in reading that align with the…
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How to Teach the Silent E Rule (or Magic E) to your students
Whether you call it VCE, Magic E, or Silent E rule, it’s a phonics rule that makes a huge impact on decoding. It opens up SO many more words to decode for students used to reading simple CVC words. It’s also my favorite phonics rule to teach! In this post, I’ll explain what the Silent…
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All About Decodable Texts: What They Are & How to Use Them!
Are you tired of watching your young readers struggle with reading like they’re trying to decode hieroglyphics? For years, I used mostly leveled texts in my guided reading groups, before I learned about the power of decodable texts. When students are learning to read, they need decodable texts! Providing your students with text they can…
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How to Teach Digraphs: 8 Ways to Make it Fun!
I love cheese and I love salsa both on their own. Yum, yum, yum. BUT… when you put them together and make queso, it’s a match made in heaven! The cheese and the salsa come together to make something even better together than they are on their own! That reminds me of digraphs! You take…
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